C is for Chardonnay
We hope to win hearts & minds with a focus on the wine world's most divisive grape: Chardonnay. Hearts will be easily won with this selection, because to drink Chardonnay is to love it. Winning minds may be slightly more challenging, because to win them we have to change them.
Chardonnay, like Sauvignon Blanc is polarising. Unlike Sauv. though, which divides opinion becuase of it's simplicity, Chardonnay is polarising because of it's depth and complexity. While Sauvignon Blanc is distinguished by a really light mouthfeel and racy acidity, Chardonnay announces itself to the palate with a much denser texture, almost viscous and oily at times. instead of racy acidity, there are layers of flavour and detail. The other major difference, is that almost without exception, Sauvignon Blanc is ready to drink, for consumption young and does not see any oak. Chardonnay on the other hand (while it can be consumed young) has huge potential for oak and ageing. 
Chardonnay is an incredible chameleon - more than any other white grape. It adapts to its terroir and various wine making techniques with aplomb, be it oak, lees stirring or extended maturation (though a steel aged Chardonnay can be equally spellbinding as as an oak aged). It is responsible for arguably the most terroir-led wine in the world; Chablis. Chablis, the satellite region of Burgundy, closer to Champagne than Burgundy, produces inimitable Chardonnay due to its distictive kimmeridgian clay soil. This soil contains fossilised sea shells and indeed, Chablis starts its life in the soil with fossilised sea shells, it should end it's life on the palate with oysters!
ABC - anything but Chardonnay originally came about because of an over reliance on oak and extraction, leading to huge, syrupy, buttery wines. To combat this reputation it then went completely the other direction, producing super-lean and austere Chardonnay (particularly in Australia, where it started to resemble Semillion). Thankfully wine makers are now letting Chardonnay just be Chardonnay.
